Palestine can use new status in UN to complain about Israeli attacks in The Hague

Nov 30, 2012

RBTH

Interfax

Mikhail Margelov, the head of the Federation Council committee on international affairs, believes Palestine's new status in the UN will enable it to file claims with the Hague Tribunal about attacks by Israel.

"The UN General Assembly has elevated Palestine's status to observer in this organization and the new status will enable Palestine to officially file claims to 18 UN agencies, including the Hague Tribunal, for example, about attacks perpetrated by Israel," Margelov told Interfax on Friday.

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At the same time, he believes Palestine's victory in the UN General Assembly was darkened by the promise made by the U.S. and Israel to deny financial assistance to the new observer state. "Who will compensate the needy Palestine for this loss? The second question is whether the new status of Palestine will affect the speed of the Middle East peace process," the Russian senator said.

Margelov said it is very difficult to predict something in this regard because Israel and the U.S. unanimously believe that the General Assembly's decision creates additional obstacles to peace and insist on direct negotiations between the parties. "As we know, these negotiations were interrupted two years ago when Palestine refused to conduct them 'from scratch' on the background of Israel's settlement activities," Margelov said.

Margelov said "Russia, which backs the elevation of Palestine's status, believes the decision made by the General Assembly cannot replace the negotiation process.

"If the negotiators resume, they will most likely have little to do with the new status of Palestine. Too many interests are focused on the Middle East conflict, and the events that are now taking place in the Middle East add new serious factors to this conflict, which influence not only the positions of Israel and Palestine, but also the U.S., the EU, Iran, China, and Russia," Margelov said.